Photography has always been with me. My dad had his own collection of cameras that he used to take photos with. He was never the wedding photographer, but he was the wedding videographer, maybe that’s where I get it from :) I use to take pictures with his old Canon 35mm film camera until it broke, through no fault of my own of course. I have always lived my life through pictures. I don’t think I can ever explain this properly, but I always look at pictures, especially the old ones, and try to connect with the person in the photograph and wonder what they were like, what they were feeling when the picture was taken. Yep I was that person, flipping through family albums and carefully studying the 4×6 photos for hours, wondering who everyone in the picture is, what were they doing, how are they related to me, where the picture was taken, if I am in the picture why don’t I remember it and so on.
Even though I remember being this immersed into photography, I never thought of it as my career or my dream job. It was always something that was there with me reminding me of my past and present moments. Even in college, working in the darkroom, I was proud of my work that I produced, but never thought for a second that this is what I want to do as a living. It wasn’t until I had my daughter, that suddenly, capturing her every smile, every day, seemed so important. I never realized how much of an impact photography had made in my life until then because that is the only way I can preserve my today for my tomorrow. My role with photography is not just to take great pictures, but to document life and keeps memories alive and preserve everything that is important that sometimes we overlook or just plain forget. I hope to capture and preserve moments that matter and also create art that one-day my daughter can look back to. I want to clearly keep living under the influence of Photography.
My dad’s contribution in my journey to being a photographer was more than his influence; it was also his camera, a perfect reminder of my influence, my love, my passion and my drive.
